Jazz News

Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer and conductor Derrick Hodge will lead a masterclass at NCCU on Friday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. in the B.N. Duke Complex Jazz Band Room.

Three NCCU jazz students and their professor joined artists worldwide at a bi-annual camp for cultural exchange through music, dance and theatre.

The university's Jazz Combo 1 performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival from Sept. 26-29, 2024, where they connected with top jazz musicians and influential business leaders supporting jazz education.

Drumming legend David Albert will perform alongside North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Jazz and Percussion Assistant Professor Thomas Taylor at the jazz studies program’s annual benefit concert Aug. 25.

One of the nation’s top jazz ensembles will serenade the NCCU Eagles at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, at the NCCU Student Center, 500 Nelson St.

The latest album by Lenora Helm Hammonds, D.M.A., called “Journeywoman,” concerns the odyssey of an archetypal woman who struggles with birth, death and self-definition.

Event celebrates jazz excellence, raises scholarship funds for jazz studies students and honors the late Grady Tate, an NCCU alumnus and soul-jazz drummer.

Events will include jazz combos concerts, clinics and lectures with Grammy-nominated saxophonist Antonio Hart and the We UP Re UP Trio.

The NCCU Jazz Ensemble recently won first place and five individual awards at the prestigious Jack Rudin Jazz Championship held in New York City.

NCCU is launching a new, online Master of Music program in Jazz Studies in the summer of 2023. It will be the first HBCU in the state with this program and one of only a few in the country.